Microsoft: It's not the number of apps, it's what you do with them

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Microsoft is not interested in having the largest number of apps in its store, it told Pocket-lint yesterday. It wants high-quality software that's of genuine use to its customers.

But then it went on to announce that Windows 8 will have the largest number of apps at launch of any app store, which made a bit of a nonsense of saying it wasn't numbers-focused.

That's not to say there won't be the usual annoying array of fart noise generators but, particularly at launch, the app store will be a little bit more carefully managed and curated. The idea is to set the bar quite high, and Microsoft believes this philosophy will increase the quality of future app releases too.

As an example the firm said developers sometimes developed five apps, each doing something specific related to Justin Bieber. So one might be Justin Bieber wallpaper, and one Justin Bieber sounds and another pictures of Justin Bieber. Now, Microsoft said, it was encouraging these devs to merge everything into one super-Bieber app. At that point we all took a moment while the cold chill worked its way down our spines.

When asked if it was going to follow the Apple walled-garden approach, we were told that - according to what Microsoft believes - it's not the walled garden people don't like, but the restriction on competing apps.

Microsoft has no problem with apps that give you access to Google instead of Bing. And it's not telling anyone that they can't release a different email client.

What the firm really wants to do is to provide a safe, secure and malware-free experience for users, and to create an ecosystem that allows developers to get paid. It wants to leverage the massive install base for Windows.

Microsoft believes that the sheer size of the audience will make developing for Windows 8 and Windows RT very attractive indeed.